Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — With the rapid shift in public opinion about same-sex marriage, opposition to
changing marriage laws has become limited to a few slices of the electorate, according to an
analysis of polling data by leading Republican and Democratic pollsters.

The two major divides are a generational and cultural split, according to the analysis, which
looked at data from the November exit polls.

Among people who voted in the last election who are older than 65, opponents of legalizing
same-sex marriage outnumber supporters 58 percent to 37 percent. But those older voters made up
only about one-sixth of the electorate. Among the large majority younger than 65, a majority now
supports same-sex marriage, 52 percent to 44 percent.

On the cultural side, people who identify themselves as white, evangelical Christians
overwhelmingly oppose same-sex marriage — 73 percent to 24 percent. They make up just over a
quarter of the electorate. Among the other three-quarters of voters, legalizing same-sex marriage
has majority support, 58 percent to 36 percent.

Joel Benenson, President Barack Obama’s chief pollster, and Jan van Lohuizen, chief pollster for
George W. Bush, did the analysis for Freedom to Marry, an advocacy group for same-sex marriage.